Guardian Probe Finds Few Gripes

TAVARES — A report that upholds some of the complaints of Lake County Guardian ad Litem volunteers but rejects most of them has been issued by the state director of the juvenile court program.

The volunteers asked state director Pam Miles to investigate the 5th Judicial Circuit's program because they believed its quality was eroding.

Meanwhile, one of the Lake volunteers who originated the complaints mailed a letter of resignation Wednesday. It was the third resignation in recent months because of dissatisfaction with local program director Lois Graw.

Guardians represent children in court who have been abused or neglected.

Thomas Moon of Mount Dora, who said the program was ''grossly mismanaged as far as I'm concerned,'' sees no point in continuing as a volunteer because he has not been assigned a case since May. ''I'm just washing my hands of the program. I'm not going to attend monthly training sessions with the idea I'm preparing for something I won't be used for.''

Moon said Graw had let him down a number of times. His complaints included withdrawal of Guardian services in three cases he had investigated, failure to keep him informed of developments in his cases and failure to give him a copy of the edited version of a report he had written to a judge.

While Miles found the program to be ''functioning very well'' from an overall viewpoint, she noted three trouble spots and made several suggestions for improving administration.

She attributed the majority of complaints to problems associated with turnover of the program's administrative staff last spring, followed closely by moving the program offices from Tavares to Ocala.

''In this sense the program faced many of the organizational problems of a newly implemented program,'' Miles wrote. ''Experience indicates that, because of the multitude of tasks required to run a program, it usually takes a program director six months to get the program fully under control.''

Graw was hired in March, about eight months ago, to succeed the founding director of the circuit's program, Donna Richey. The Guardian office was moved to Ocala about two months later, with Chief Circuit Judge Ernest C. Aulls citing the heavier court caseload there and the fact that money was not available to compensate Graw, who lives in Ocala, for travel expenses to Tavares.

The three problems Miles substantiated -- 11 complaints were presented to her in August -- were administrative. She noted that they appeared to have been isolated incidents but provided recommendations for eliminating these problems in the future. The complaints and her recommendations are:

-- Dropping cases to which volunteers are assigned without first informing the volunteers. Miles said that complaint apparently resulted from Graw's dismissal, under Aulls' direction, of a large number of cases when the program offices were moved. Miles urged the staff to contact volunteers before dropping their cases, but noted that the volunteers' consent is not neccessary if the discharge is legally required.

-- Heavy editing of volunteers' reports. Miles said editing should not change the substance of a report unless the changes are necessary to comply with program standards. If significant changes are to be made in reports, the volunteers should be consulted.

-- Telling volunteers to make certain recommendations. Miles said volunteers are supposed to be guided by their judgment of what is best for the child they represent in making recommendations to the court. However, she noted that program administrators should provide guidance to the volunteers and that protocols for investigating and monitoring cases must be met.

Miles further recommended that a grievance committee and written grievance procedure be implemented to handle complaints against volunteers. This stemmed from a complaint that a volunteer was dismissed without a full explanation or counseling to correct problems, although Miles upheld the volunteer's dismissal.

She also recommended that the program staff be available to volunteers in each county at least 2 1/2 days each month, a recommendation put forth by Court Administrator Fred Hooten.

''Support of and assistance to program volunteers must be a program priority,'' Miles wrote.

She also suggested that some of the conflicts between Graw and the volunteers could be attributed to Graw's background as a manager for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

''I believe that Mrs. Graw . . . was not immediately able to adjust her management style to the program, which operates quite differently from HRS,'' she said.

Miles said Graw now is ''considerably more familiar and comfortable with Guardian ad Litem program policy at this point.''

Graw could not be reached Thursday, nor could Aulls.

Moon noted that, while three volunteers who previously had complained about Graw now appear to support her, the program has lost a third of its Lake County volunteers.

He also disputed the contention of court officials that complaints about the program were exaggerated and came from a handful of dissidents. The 10 Lake volunteers who were active at the time each signed a letter of complaint, written in June, to Chief Circuit Judge Ernest C. Aulls.

The volunteers have not been the only critics of the program. Lake Circuit Judge C. Welborn Daniel has stopped using the Guardian service unless attorneys request it because he believes the quality of the reports he receives from the program has slipped in the last few months.